Commenting mainly on France and U.S.policy in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Author of "Web of Deceit, the History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush." Now finishing a novel, "The Watchman's File," delving into Israel's most closely-guarded secret. [It's not the bomb.]

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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

In his voluminous writings, Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik cited American Pamela Geller, who runs the site, Atlas Shrugs, and has made a career from her shrill Islamophobia.

Geller has scrambled to distance herself from Breivik’s horrific acts. “No dealings, no emails, no nothing,” Geller said. “He mentions me once in a 1,500 page ‘manifesto,’ and this is the tie? Does anyone see how completely ridiculous this whole thing is?”

Intrigued by the mention of Geller in my original blog on this subject, John Smith decided to check out Geller’s site. “It looks like she’s been ‘scrubbing her links” Geller wrote me, but what he uncovered on Google’s cache of Atlas Shrugs, was –particularly in light of the racist rampage in Norway—an incredibly chilling email sent to Geller on June 24,2007.

Introducing it simply as an “Email from Norway,” Geller wrote:

“I am running an email I received from an Atlas reader in Norway. It is devastating in its matter-of-factness:”

According to her Norwegian reader:

“Well, yes, the situation is worsening. Stepping up from 29 000 immigrants every year, in 2007 we will be getting a total of 35 000 immigrants from somalia, iran, iraq and afghanistan. The nations capital is already 50% muslim, and they ALL go there after entering Norway. Adding the 1.2 births per woman per year from muslim women, there will be 300 000+ muslims out of the then 480 000 inhabitants of that city.

“Orders from Libya and Iran say that Oslo will be known as Medina at the latest in 2010, although I consider this a PR-stunt nevertheless it is their plan.

“From Israel the hordes clawing at the walls of Jerusalem proclaim cheerfully that next year there will be no more Israel, and I know Israel shrugs this off as do I, and will mount a strike during the summer against all of its enemies in the middle east. This will make the muslims worldwide go into a frenzy, attacking everyone around them.

[Lando: my italics added]

“We are stockpiling and caching weapons, ammunition and equipment. This is going to happen fast.

Before, I thought about emigrating to Britain, Israel, USA, South Africa, etc. for taxes and politics, but instead (although I believe we are the very last generation on earth before the return of God) I will stay and fight for the right to this country and indeed the entire peninsula, for the God-fearing people, just in case this isn't the end of the world after all. Doesn't hurt to have a backup plan.

“It's far from impossible to achieve, after all my people has done it every time before, in feats that match the ancient greek, hebrew and british "legends".

“Oslo and the southeast may fall easily, but there are other lines than "state"-borders drawn across this country since long before there was even a single muslim in the world, and we have held them this long, against everyone else too. We are entering a new golden age for my people, and those of a handful other countrys, but only through struggle.

“Never fear, Pamela. God is with you too in this coming time.”

Was Anders Behring Breivik the author of that message? If not—as Geller now claims-- it was a countryman with equally apocalyptic—and frightening views.

Did Geller worry that talk of stockpiling and caching weapons and equipment went too far? Did she consider turning over that email to Norwegian authorities? Did she at the very least counsel her Norwegian correspondent—and her readers-- that the problem of immigration and Islamic fundamentalism would not be solved by armed violence? This, after all, was not the kind of action she was calling for. Right?

Nope, she posted those views on her site for her radical followers using their pseudonyms to debate, cheer on, or become inspired by—as the majority of the comments made clear. [I suggest you read them all in full, but here are some excerpts]:

“Miluimnik said…

What a wonderful letter. We've come to expect this sort of exceptional correspondence an the pages of Atlas...but I remain in awe of your readership and their commitment to freedom and liberty nonetheless.

…………………

John Jay said…

christians and jews:

to arms!! to arms!!

if our leaders betray us, and surely norwegian leaders betray their citizens, then we have no one left to betray us, except our selves and our own cowardice.

are we to slip into an eternal dark ages without a fight?

so, i say.--

to arms!! to arms!!

the fight has started, and we must respond.

………………….

wxjames said….

“I only hope that in the event civil war breaks out there or any other democracy, that the US still has enough moral clarity to supply the native populations with guns and ammunition if not troops.
I fear, however that the world is in such a general state of instability that it may become every man for himself. Even here in the USA, people speak of civil war to overthrow leftism and political correctness and the general loss of individual rights to regulations and special interests.
How much further can we go down this road ? How much more crap before critical mass is reached. … The time is close.

…………………..

turn said…..

There's an Old Testament blood-bath comin'.

Question remains: Are there enough Norsemen that will hear the Wyking song pulse in their veins?

Season after season Norway (and Sweden) are conceding whole neighborhoods populated by 'immigrants' as no-go zones. Police and EMS won't respond there. It's the friggin' death-cry of civilization when the barbarians can intimidate in this manner.

So...yes. A very nice letter to you, Pam, from a Norwegian Atlasite (Atlasonian?). Unfortunately, he or she could be prosecuted under hate-speech laws for writing or posting in Norway what you have passed on to us.

Monday, July 25, 2011

According to his attorney, the man behind this weekends slaughter of 92 people in Norway, Anders Behring Reivki, feels that his actions were “atrocious” yet “necessary”. Why necessary?

In his voluminous writings, Reivki frequently cited such right-wing American Islamaphobes, as Robert Spencer and Pamela Gellert as providing the intellectual underpinning for his rabid views. Spencer and Gellert are now scrambling to distance themselves from the Norwegian’s horrific acts.

Question: If Pamela Gellert really believes her clarion warnings of racial apocalypse, how could she not foresee that one of her admirers would choose to stop writing and start acting, courageously perform that “necessary” act: sacrificing himself—and—regrettably--others----to defend Civilization as we know it.

After all, if all we hold dear is at stake, it’s long past the time for mere words!

In fact, Reiki may not only have been just a consumer of Geller’s site Atlas Shrugs, but also a contributor.

John Smith, responded to my original blog about Geller’s possible intellectual links with Norway’s tragedy by pointing to an “intriguing post on Geller's site, dated June 24, 2007 - titled "Email from Norway".

Wrote Smith: It looks like she's been "scrubbing" her links, but you can still see it on Googlecache:http://web cache.goog leusercont ent.com/se arch?q=cac he:LCzO2Vc j8s8J:atla­sshrugs200 0.typepad. com/atlas_ shrugs/200 7/06/email -from-norw .html

Herewith the quote from Geller’s site:

“I am running an email I received from an Atlas reader in Norway. It is devastating in its matter-of-factness:

“Well, yes, the situation is worsening. Stepping up from 29 000 immigrants every year, in 2007 we will be getting a total of 35 000 immigrants from somalia, iran, iraq and afghanistan. The nations capital is already 50% muslim, and they ALL go there after entering Norway. Adding the 1.2 births per woman per year from muslim women, there will be 300 000+ muslims out of the then 480 000 inhabitants of that city.

“Orders from Libya and Iran say that Oslo will be known as Medina at the latest in 2010, although I consider this a PR-stunt nevertheless it is their plan.

“From Israel the hordes clawing at the walls of Jerusalem proclaim cheerfully that next year there will be no more Israel, and I know Israel shrugs this off as do I, and will mount a strike during the summer against all of its enemies in the middle east. This will make the muslims worldwide go into a frenzy, attacking everyone around them.

“We are stockpiling and caching weapons, ammunition and equipment. This is going to happen fast.
Before, I thought about emigrating to Britain, Israel, USA, South Africa, etc. for taxes and politics, but instead (although I believe we are the very last generation on earth before the return of God) I will stay and fight for the right to this country and indeed the entire peninsula, for the God-fearing people, just in case this isn't the end of the world after all. Doesn't hurt to have a backup plan.

“It's far from impossible to achieve, after all my people has done it every time before, in feats that match the ancient greek, hebrew and british "legends".

“Oslo and the southeast may fall easily, but there are other lines than "state"-borders drawn across this country since long before there was even a single muslim in the world, and we have held them this long, against everyone else too. We are entering a new golden age for my people, and those of a handful other countrys, but only through struggle.

“Never fear, Pamela. God is with you too in this coming time.”

Note the paragraph, which I italicized, talking of stockpiling and caching weapons.

Did Ms. Geller consider turning over that email to Norwegian authorities? Didn’t she worry at the time that such violent talk went too far? That here was a tragedy in the making that she could prevent? Did she counsel her Norwegian correspondent that the problem of immigration should not be dealt with armed violence? This, after all, was not the kind of action she was calling for. Right?

Nope, she posted his views on her site, for thousands of radical thinkalikes to cheer on—or, who knows, become inspired.

But, before posting those views she carefully removed the name of her Norwegian email admirer--as my correspondent John Smith pointed out, calling attention to one of the comments on Geller’s site on the Norwegian email:

"A very nice letter to you, Pam, from a Norwegian Atlasite (Atlasonian?). Unfortunately, he or she could be prosecuted under hate-speech laws for writing or posting in Norway what you have passed on to us."

Sunday, July 24, 2011

A few days ago, before the terrifying bloodshed in Norway, I received an email from the U.S. denouncing the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in France: “Will the world say nothing—again—as it did in Hitler’s time?” The author catalogued a list of attacks against Jewish targets in France over the past few months. He called for a boycott of France and French products: “Only the Arab countries are more toxically anti-Semitic and, unlike them, France exports more than just oil and hatred.”

I’ve been getting such emails now for years since I’ve been living in France. In my view the major reason for the attacks on Jewish targets is political rather than racial. Provoked by the fact that the leadership of the Jewish community in France (which does not represent the majority of French Jews) has been outspoken in supporting the right-wing policies of the current Israeli government.

What has long bothered me about such emails, however, is not just a misreading of the cause, but a tunnel vision on the part of many Jews--a total disregard for those other Semites: the rampant growth of anti-Islamic and anti-Arab sentiment in France and across Europe over the past few years. The number of attacks on Arab targets and new legislation relating to the practice of Islam in several European countries which would have had the world’s Jewish community in full cry if they’d been directed against Jewish targets.

Along with that has been the rapid growth of right-wing parties across much of the continent. Those parties in the past had a strong explicitly anti-Jewish content. The principle targets now are immigrants, mainly Arabs and Muslims. Those parties are no longer confined to kooks and misfits. Anti-Arab/Muslim sentiments are everywhere, from polite dinner time conversation to exchanges in the street markets to supposedly harmless jokes relayed on the Internet, like the one we received the day after I received the alert on anti-Semitism in France:

Three men, a Frenchman, a Tunisian and an Algerian who find themselves together in a raunchy Parisian bar. They down one beer after another. At one point the Tunisian tosses his empty beer bottle into the air, yells “we’ve got so many empty bottles in Tunis”, pulls out a gun and blasts the bottle apart in mid air.

The Algerian also throws his bottle into the air, “says we’ve got so much sand in Algeria, there’s no shortage of glass,” pulls out a gun and shatters the bottle.

The French guy takes a disgusted look at the other two, pulls out a pistol and yells, “We’ve got so god damn many Arabs in France, I never have to drink with you two creeps again, and he guns both of them down.

I was still thinking about that the next day, when news came of the horrific slaughter in Norway and the gradual disclosures that the author was not an bearded Arab terrorist, but a blond, clean-cut White convinced that he was a soldier in the War of Civilizations, defending the Christian west against the threat of Islam.

On his site he cited such ideological soul-mates as Pamela Geller, a notorious right-wing, pro-Israel, Islamophobic blogger, whose principal mouthpiece (when she’s not on Fox TV) is Atlas Shrugs. A poster shows a recent event which she backed, along with Robert Spencer who operates Jihad Watch.

People like Geller and Spencer and right-wing leaders across Europe are already attempting to distance themselves from any responsibility for the outrage in Norway. Their excuses ring hollow, in view of their rabid language and incendiary rhetoric.

But a more basic question is: to what degree are the growing anti-Islamic views, held by tens (if not hundreds) of millions of ‘decent” Europeans—folks who would never consider themselves right-wing or racist—like the ones who chuckle at the bar room joke above—to what degree are they—or their silence --also a part of the context for what could be even more horrifying acts to come?

For with growing economic turmoil in Europe and huge numbers attempting to flee the bloody uprisings across much of North Africa, this problem is only going to get worse.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

After the allegations that top-level Pakistani officials have secretly aided Al Qaeda and the Taliban, sheltering Osama Bin Laden himself, now comes a startling new charge: “Pakistan’s Military Plotted to Tilt U.S. Policy, FBI says.”

Now we wait for the predictable stream of American outrage. Pure hypocrisy: the Pakistanis have done nothing more than take a page from the CIA playbook.

According to the New York Times, the FBI investigation, involved at least (count them) eight FBI field offices, They conclude that Pakistan’s military and the ISI, its powerful spy agency, have used front groups to funnel campaign donations over the past two decades to members of the U.S. Congress and presidential candidates. This in blatant disregard of the law prohibiting foreign governments from making donations to American political candidates.

The dastardly aim of that operation? To counter the Indian lobby in Washington and persuade the United States government to push India to allow a vote in Kashmir that would let Kashmiris decide on their own future. I mean—can you imagine!!

The total amount involved: $4 million over two decades—which works out to $200,000 per year. That included $250.00 donations to the 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns of al Gore and Barack Obama. The congressmen involved claimed they had no knowledge that the money actually originated with the Pakistani government.

Of course, the Pakistani effort is pocket money compared to what the United States has been up to clandestinely for more than half a century, spending billions not just to “tilt” policy of other countries, but to literally buy elections, legislators, intelligence chiefs, generals, cabinet ministers, and entire governments around the globe—starting with Italy and Greece and Iran post World War II and continuing across every continent since.

Take for instance, last year’s revelations that several of Afghan President Karzai’s top officials—including some of the most corrupt---are on the U.S. intelligence payroll.

As for Pakistan itself, its military have been on the receiving end of billions of dollars in “military aid” , both parties realizing that horde is little more than a bribe to keep the military at least officially on side.

Such pay-offs are just for starters. Why bother “tilting” a government—when you can work to overthrow it or knock off its leader? i.e. Mossadegh in Iran, (1953) Arbenz in Guatemala (1954), the Congo (1960, Iraq (1963), Cuba (1959 to this day) Chile (1964-73), Brazil (1962-64), Indonesia 1965, Angola (1975), Nicaragua (1981 to 90) Grenada (1983), Saddam Hussein 2003. And so on—more than fifty instances over the past fifty years.

Who are the headline writers kidding? You don’t need to be an investigative reporter or a congressman privy to secret intelligence briefings. It’s all out there on Google.

The Pakistanis have been tightly linked to (if not allied with) the CIA for decades. It would have been amazing if they had not been up to such games.

God help us if they, the Russians, Chinese or anyone else ever decide to really follow the American lead—like liquidating anyone they consider a mortal enemy with their own global-roaming Predators.

@barrylando

About Me

Originally from Vancouver, studied at Harvard, Harvard Law and Columbia University, then correspondent for Time Life in South America, and 30 years as Producer with 60 Minutes in Washington D.C. and Paris, where I now live. Wrote book on history of Western Invervention in Iraq, Web of Deceit, now writing a novel, painting, travelling, visiting friends and relatives.